Aso, Hatoyama trade criticism over policy platforms+

NIIGATA, Japan, Aug. 1 Kyodo -
Embattled Prime Minister Taro Aso and main opposition Democratic Party of Japan
leader Yukio Hatoyama traded barbs in stump speeches Saturday, lashing out at
each other's policy platforms unveiled in the past week for the Aug. 30 general
election.
Aso delivered speeches at four locations in Niigata Prefecture, where the
Liberal Democratic Party president courted voters as he took to the streets for
the first time since his party announced its manifesto Friday, four days after
the DPJ revealed its own.
In particular, Aso criticized the DPJ's pledges to provide a monthly allowance
of 26,000 yen for each child of junior high school age or younger and to scrap
expressway tolls if a government led by the opposition party takes power.
''What will be the source of the money for these policies?,'' Aso said. ''Such
a splurge is just irresponsible and should not happen.''
Aso chose Niigata Prefecture as the starting point of his stump tour in an
apparent attempt to rally support for his national security policy, which
focuses on North Korean issues, including the country's past abductions of
Japanese nationals.
Earlier Saturday, Aso visited the site from where Megumi Yokota, one of those
believed to have been abducted by North Korean agents, went missing in 1977.
''The party that protects Japan and its people is the LDP,'' Aso said in a
campaign speech. ''Those people will not return unless we put adequate pressure
on (North Korea)...We cannot just leave the governance of our country to the
DPJ, which is directionless (on security issues).''
Meanwhile, DPJ President Hatoyama said during a tour of Gifu and Kyoto cities
that the LDP policy platform contains no clear-cut policy goals and called it a
''mock manifesto.''
''Almost nothing is written about what they will try to do in the next four
years and how they would secure sources for funding,'' Hatoyama said. ''I'm
wondering, really, why they're calling it a manifesto.''
Hatoyama said he realizes that the current situation favors the DPJ, as shown
in opinion polls by media organizations suggesting that an end to the LDP's
longstanding rule is likely.
''The bedrock for the LDP has been eroded and it's inevitable in the current of
history,'' he said. ''It's time for a party that has done nothing the last four
years to take responsibility for its inaction.''
==Kyodo
2009-08-02 00:11:16